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Monday, 11 August 2014

Last week I had a relative from Austrailia to stay, she was over in the UK following her two month tour around Europe.

The last time we'd met was about sixteen years ago, yet it strangely felt like we'd known each other forever.

I have had so much fun introducing her to the places nearby, places I wouldn't change for the world and am so lucky to have on my doorstep. The weather has thankfully been beautiful (as you can see in the above picture) which always helps when trying to portray how stunning the area in which you reside really is!

I hope she enjoyed her weeks stay and I'm really excited for when I can get over to Austrailia and explore her world.

Monday, 16 June 2014

To say the past month has been a bit of a whirlwind is an understatement, a very lovely whirlwind however. Huge apologies for the lack of content recently but fear not I am here, all forgiven? Good.

Ok so where to start, lets go back three and half weeks and get the bad, sad, worst update news out of the way. Freddie had a little accident, tripped on a toy and cutting right above his beautiful little eye, it was a mess - blood, tears, screaming, the lot so off we rushed to A&E. The staff, doctors and nurses were wonderful, I'm sure they deal with much worse on a daily basis but they made me feel at ease and Freddie not be in too much pain, he ended up having to have an operation under local anaesthetic to have a couple of stitches on the cut and clean the area, my heart broke when they had to put him under and I would not wish that upon anyone. If you have children that are poorly and have to under-go medical stuff frequently then you literally have all my sympathy and love in the world, you brave brave people! Thankfully everything went to plan and he was a lucky little boy that the toy landed above his eye and not 1cm lower. It hopefully should all heal up and barely leave a scar!

Sad update out of the way, lets go back four weeks. I received a call from my lovely dad informing me he had booked a little trip for himself, my mum, Freddie and I to visit my brother who lives in Austria. LOVELY SURPRISE, finding out we were leaving the following week, hectic! So three weeks ago (apologies for the all this week hopping that's going on) we flew over to Munich and travelled down to Austria for a five day break. It was so much fun - there's a blog post on the way! Freddie had a lovely time despite his poorly eye, I enjoyed being treated to a break and it was lovely to finally be able to check out the place my brother has been living!

Whilst we were away, I got another lovely but hectic surprise from my boyfriend. He decided to book a family holiday to Cyprus! Even though luckily we have been away every year since Freddie has been born, we've actually never been away just the three of us, so it was a lovely idea and surprise. We left five days after returning from Austria, I had just enough time to squeeze in a trip to the Trafford Centre, wash and re-pack everything up before we board a flight to sunny Paphos!

I feel extremely lucky that four weeks ago I had no plans to go abroad in 2014 and now I've barely been in the UK for more than 8 days! So look forward to a blog post from my time in Austria and Cyprus, my rather late monthly favourites, along with a few others I had already planned before my globetrotting adventures took over!

Have you ever been surprised by a holiday or where would your dream destination be?

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Wow, I'm not really sure where this last month went but here are a few of my favourite iPhone photos I took throughout the month of May. I started the month celebrating my cousins eighteenth birthday, I felt rather old at her party but took a cute photo of my sister, Freddie and I. It was a lovely evening and great to catch up with all the family!

I've been really into my coffee this month, I've always been a coffee lover however since I discovered espresso macchiato it's becoming a slight obsession! The first picture was taken after enjoying a lovely wagamamas with my mum earlier this month and the second during my trip to Austria (separate blog post to come soon)

I've been trying to change my eating habits this month, making healthier choices and drinking more water. Below is a salad I made that I could easily eat every day, it consists of quinoa, avocado, olives, feta, beetroot and spinach - delicious! Whilst I've not yet cut out everything unhealthy I have noticed a big difference in myself, I feel full of energy throughout the day and I don't hate waking up at 8am anymore! I'm excited to see where this lifestyle will take me and the rewards it will bring - gotta start somewhere right!?

I spent a lot of time with family this month so below are a small selection, the first was taken in a lift on a trip my mum and I took over to Leeds, (I blogged it here) the second is my sister, Rachael and Freddie in their snuggly blankets by the wood burner, Freddie idolises my sister and they truly are best buddies! Bottom left is a little Starbucks drive through snap I took, I cut off my boyfriend as he's not really into the whole blogging thing - but he was there too, Freddie loves Starbucks, iced vanilla chai tea being his favourite drink although he's a fan of the frapps too! Bottom right is a picture I took when I arrived in Austria, we went over to visit my brother, who lives there but I'll do a post about that later this week!

Below are a couple of cute photo's of Freddie. The first was at The Trafford Centre, apparently he was the king of castle and I was the dirty rascal, I think it quite suits him, King Freddie! The next is his new backpack that I found in Marks & Spencers, I don't usually shop there for Freddie's clothes but I spotted it on my way through to the food section and just had to buy it, it has barely left his back since I gave it to him! A few nights ago I went in to tuck him in before I went to bed and found him surrounded by his teddies, just, argh, so cute! The last (bottom right) is how I found him when I went to pick him up from my parents last week, Freddie has my dad wrapped around his little finger and always manages to get an ice-cream from him.

My final photo that I want to share is a bit of a hello to summer, I took this during the few days we had some nice weather when I went to watch my sisters boyfriend play cricket one afternoon. He is on the right batting - there's nothing more British summertime than an afternoon of pimms and cricket in the sunshine, here's to many more!

If you enjoyed my post please go and follow me over on Instagram where I post pretty frequently!

Friday, 23 May 2014

Earlier this week my I was invited to The Institute of Communication Studies at Leeds University for their End of Year Show, it was a chance for all final year students to show their short films on the big screen, one of those students being my little sister, Rachael. My sister is four years younger than me, so not only does it make me feel very proud she has completed her university degree but also very old. Before I went to the event we squeezed in time for a Wagamamas, I'm going through a bit of a health phase, summer is coming after all, so I just had to order the big green juice.

Leeds University is a beautiful campus, and The Institute of Communication Studies is located in possibly the most stunning part of the campus. If you're at the age where you're choosing universities then make sure you pay a visit here, It's such a cool city and amazing place to study!

I wasn't able to take many photo's in the event due to copyright but it was an amazing experience, I almost forgot that I was in a university and not at the cinema watching a film I'd paid to see. The film my sister worked on was called The Dealer, a beautifully shot mysterious story that left me wanting to know more and watch more. They had worked on location in Whitby and the effort they must have put in to be able to produce such quality exhausted me at the very thought! Another favourite of mine was called Pebble Moon, I cannot express how heart warming this was, it was a complete contrast to The Dealer and told a story of a young girl who had two dads, amazing funny yet touching story, one that could easily be made into a TV drama or film.

I was so impressed with the high standard of these short films, I'm sure there is big things to come from the 2014 graduates from The Institute of Communication Studies at Leeds University! I'm so proud of what my sister has achieved after three years of hard work, it definitely paid off in her final piece of work, I just can't quite believe my baby sister is now a graduate!

Have you ever been to a graduate short film festival, let me know in the comments!

Monday, 19 May 2014

No this isn't a post about the one direction song, although I am now singing that to myself whilst typing! This morning my mum called, she told me to drop Freddie at her house and to go shopping for some summer clothes, as if the offer wasn't already amazing, she then gave me some money to treat myself. Now to those that don't have children this may not seem like a massive deal but if you have then you won't need me to tell you this was such a lovely little gesture, a whole afternoon to myself, for myself - bliss!

I never usually spend money on myself, only if I'm forced into buying something due to my clothes falling apart. I'd rather buy Freddie something new or treat my partner who works so hard to look after us, I felt a little overwhelmed as where to start - although as you can imagine that didn't last long. My summer wardrobe has had a much needed update and I even had time to enjoy a late lunch and a cheeky cocktail in the sun whilst people watching before heading home!

To my mum this was such a little thing to do, to me it was one of the kindest and most thoughtful things. Have you ever done something like this for someone, or better still has anyone done this for you, I'd love to know in the comments!

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

I've never done one of these monthly favourite types of posts before, mainly because it always seemed more of an appropriate post for beauty bloggers to do, however, I'm going to give it a whirl and hope for the best..

So here we go.. Here's my April favourites..

1. I have used the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour eight hour cream for many years and it's fantastic, so when my mum bought me the Eight Hour Intensive Daily Moisturiser for face earlier this month I was really excited to try it out. It leaves my skin feeling so soft and moisturised without feeling shiny or sticky, I suffer from dry skin but this is just the right consistency to not leave me feeling like I need to moisturise throughout the day, unlike my previous moisturiser. It also has SPF 15 which has come in handy with the warm weather we've luckily experienced this month!

2. I'm a big coffee fan so when I came across Starbucks VIA whilst doing my weekly food shop I knew these were going to be my new love! I'm the only one in my house that regularly drinks coffee and my mornings are pretty hectic as it is, so grinding up fresh beans and brewing up a cafetiere each morning is a dream that's probably never going to happen - it makes the Starbucks VIA so perfect for my busy mornings! I've so far only tried the Columbia blend, but next time I'm in my local Starbucks i'm going to see what other blends they have and stock up! It's also rather handy to take with me to the office or when I'm visiting my tea loving friends!

3. I was in The White Company a couple of weeks ago stocking up on some pyjamas for Freddie, when I remembered I needed to get some new perfume. I thought since I adore their scented candles etc why not see what their perfume is like and OH MY, my nose went to actual smell heaven! After eventually making a very tough decision, I went with the NOIR (Amber, Mandarin and Orchid) Eau De Toilette, I literally could have bought every single fragrance but somehow stopped myself. I'm almost excited for when this runs out and I get to choose another, I've been obsessed with The White Company for a long time but this has further fuelled that obsession!

4. I've loved the TV show New Girl since it came on our screens a couple of years ago, but I'm so rubbish at remembering when things are on TV and always end up missing episodes. This month my boyfriend and I have been catching up with the programme online, we've had to stop ourselves from pulling all nighters so we can watch every episode consecutively! I've become a BIG fan, I want to be Jess, my boyfriend wants to be Schmitt and we find ourselves crying with laughter at least a couple of times each episode, It's just SO good and totally our sense of humour!

5. For my final monthly favourite I thought I'd link you to whichever blog I've been loving throughout the month, through YouTube I found Ben Brown, I'm a massive fan of his daily vlogs - in fact I think he's the only 'youtuber' I watch consistently. I found my way through to his website and blog which really is beautiful. The photography on his posts is stunning and I'm beyond obsessed with his monthly playlists; it's the first thing I do when I open up my laptop to begin blogging, so in fact I guess you could say he is the reason I've become a better blogger, all I needed was a great soundtrack! He is one inspiring and talented guy, I'm sure you've all probably heard of Ben but if you haven't go and check him out!

So I do hope that this post was of some interest to you.. I enjoyed writing it so look out for next months.. Remember to follow me over on Blog Lovin' and Google+ to get alerted when I post!

Thanks for reading.. Let me know what you've been loving this month in the comments below!

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

I did a post like this a while ago & I really enjoyed it, so since I'm back being a good blogger - I'm bringing it back, simply put, here are my favourite iPhone photos from April..

Easter fun *apologies for lack of Easter post but I just didn't get round to putting it all together and then it got toooo late and I was just way over it by then* I found this giant hot cross bun (below, left) at our local deli, it was amazing toasted with butter - you can't really tell how big it is from this photo but it was the size of a loaf of bread! Our table on Easter morning, (below) Freddie's face was priceless!

Ok so.. Yes.. I am twenty five and yes I am also mother but this does not mean I can't go to watch McBusted and take a photo of the giant three boobs (below, left) so lovely to spend a couple of hours with a few of my friends pretending I was thirteen again!

I don't think I've mentioned this on my blog yet, but I'm a big football fan. I support my local team, Burnley, who against all odds won automatic promotion to the Premier League this month. This was the amazing scene (below, left) following the final whistle on Easter Monday, it was such a proud and overwhelming day for me and one I was beyond happy to have shared with my dad and brother (who flew home to be there). We then obviously celebrated with champagne at a local bar (below, right). I love the way football connects people from every aspect and way of life, whilst I understand why many people aren't into it (think footballers are over paid etc) for me it's how I've been brought up and I wouldn't have it any other way - It's a big and important part of my life.

These are a couple of things I've consumed and loved this month, my dad made my day a couple of weeks ago with a cute little ice-cream delivery. (below, top right) I've hidden it deep in the freezer away from any ice-cream loving little three year olds. Freddie and I have made Easter nests (bottom, right) all throughout this month, so easy to do and amazing to enjoy with a cup of tea for a mid afternoon treat! I put the ice-cream to good use one evening and made cookie ice-cream sandwiches (below, bottom centre) which were amazing!

I'm so happy spring has properly sprung, I love being outdoors however i'm not a massive fan of being outdoors in winter! Freddie has been enjoying wearing his shorts again and we've had a couple of trips to get ice lollies! The photo below was taken in a little place called Ilkley, which is near Leeds, I'm going to return there soon to do a little blog post as it's lovely and I felt my iPhone camera wouldn't do it the justice it deserves!